Won’t You Be My Neighbor? How to Build Community from Scratch
Release Date: 05/06/2025
Building Community Through Your Kids’ Activities
The Chaos Commanders
It’s the Season 1 Finale! 🎉 We are wrapping up the first season of The Chaos Commanders with a heartfelt conversation about the hidden magic of community — and how showing up for your kids can help you build your own village, too. From karate mats to cross-country meets, we’ll explore how parent friendships form in the chaos of real life and why connection matters more than ever. QUOTES “Parenting can feel isolating, but it doesn’t have to be.” — Annie “You don’t have to be best friends with everyone you meet to build community.” — Annie “Community doesn’t...
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Planning a Month Like a Commander
The Chaos Commanders
Welcome back, Chaos Commanders! In this episode, we share practical, flexible planning strategies to help you set yourself up for a successful (and slightly less chaotic) month. From CEO Days to family command centers, we break down our five essential “Commander Calendar Moments” and favorite tools for keeping both business and life organized — without losing your mind. QUOTES “Chaos doesn’t scare us — but a lack of a plan does.” — Katelynn “Plan your life, then live it flexibly.” — Katelynn “For Wing your eyeliner, not your weeks.” — Annie “Monthly...
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Redefining "Good Mom" On Our Own Terms
The Chaos Commanders
Every mom has asked the question: Am I a good mom? But what happens when we stop measuring ourselves against social media highlight reels, outdated generational ideals, or the opinions of strangers—and instead define "good mom" on our own terms? In this episode, we open up about the pressures of motherhood, the comparison traps we’ve faced, and the courage it takes to parent differently than the generations before us. From messy adventures that never make it to Instagram, to breaking cycles of dysfunction and learning to repair after hard moments, we share real stories and hard-earned...
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What’s for Dinner? A Week of Real-Life Meals from the Commanders
The Chaos Commanders
Let’s be real—figuring out what to feed your people every single day can feel like a full-time job. In this episode, we each share an actual week of our go-to meals—complete with shortcuts and survival-mode strategies. Whether you’re a meal prep queen or someone who forgets what’s in the fridge by Wednesday, this one’s for you. No shame, just solidarity. QUOTES “You’re not a bad mom if meal planning feels like a mental load nightmare.” — Katelynn “I’m not here for shame meals—I’m here for survival meals.” — Annie “It’s not about perfection—it’s about...
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How To Love Your Kids and Still Need a Break
The Chaos Commanders
It’s the ultimate mom guilt trap: “If I love my kids, why do I still want to escape them?” In this episode, Annie and Katelynn are getting honest and unfiltered about the tension between loving your children fiercely… and still desperately needing space. If you’ve ever hidden in the bathroom for five minutes of silence (or screamed into a pillow between toddler tantrums), this one’s for you. Let’s talk about: The myth of “24/7 maternal joy” Sensory overload, overstimulation, and why your brain feels like a browser with 100 tabs open Creating guilt-free rest plans...
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Chaos-Proofing Your Evenings: Realistic Routines for Moms
The Chaos Commanders
Back-to-school chaos is officially here—and so is the evening overwhelm. Whether your toddler is melting down before dinner or your teen just remembered they need a poster board at 9 PM, nighttime can feel like the most chaotic part of the day. In this episode, we ditch the Pinterest-perfect pressure and talk about what real moms actually need: practical rhythms, a little breathing room, and the reminder that peace matters more than perfection. From cranky kids to working-mom transitions, we share stories, confessions, and hacks to help you reclaim your evenings. Whether you’re cooking...
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Back-to-School Chaos: How to Prepare Like a Commander
The Chaos Commanders
Back-to-school season is here—and the chaos is real. In this episode, we delve into the emotional, logistical, and mental overload that accompanies the start of a new school year. Whether you're a Type A planner or a Type B vibes-only mom, this conversation offers validation, laughs, and practical tips to help you navigate it all like a true commander. From the emotional whiplash of first-day drop-offs to the reality of routines that never go as planned, we're talking about the whole experience—mom guilt, empty planners, surprise permission slips, outfit bins (or not), and how to prepare...
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Lift, Don’t Shrink: Strength Training Through the Chaos
The Chaos Commanders
It’s time to flip the script on fitness—and we're doing it with dumbbells in hand and our heads held high. This week on The Chaos Commanders, we’re talking about why strength training is about so much more than looking a certain way. From perimenopause to postpartum to post-burnout seasons of life, building strength (physically and emotionally) is one of the most powerful ways to reclaim your energy, agency, and confidence. Whether you’re a Type A mom with color-coded lifting schedules or a Type B mom trying to remember where your kettlebell even went… this episode is for you....
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Meal Planning for Type A & Type B Moms
The Chaos Commanders
Whether you love a color-coded meal board or you’re still deciding what’s for dinner at 5 p.m., this episode is for you. Commander A (Annie) and Commander K (Katelynn) break down the differences in how Type A and Type B moms approach mealtime—and how to make it less chaotic, no matter your style. From batch-cooking basics to “snack plate dinner” survival mode, we’re covering practical tips, mom hacks, and a little bit of real talk about mental load, food guilt, and why cereal counts as a valid dinner. We’re talking: The emotional and logistical chaos of feeding people How...
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Oops, That Was Me: How We Create Our Own Chaos
The Chaos Commanders
In this episode, we’re taking a playful but honest look at the ways we accidentally create our own chaos as moms. From Annie’s over-planning to Katelynn’s time blindness, we’re confessing our chaos-creating habits—not to shame ourselves, but to bring awareness and offer solutions. Whether you’re a Type A, Type B, or somewhere in between, we’re sharing stories, laughs, and tips to help you hold the lighter a little less often. QUOTES “I bottle things up in the name of efficiency—and that always backfires.” – Annie “I underestimate how long everything takes,...
info_outlineIn this episode of The Chaos Commanders Podcast, we’re talking about one of the trickiest parts of solo parenting, military life, and adulting in general—building community from scratch. From clever icebreakers like delivering wine with your number on it, to emergency contact awkwardness (yes, we’ve asked strangers at the gym), we’re sharing stories, tips, and real talk about how to meet people when you’re the new one in town.
Whether you're a military family navigating another PCS move, a single mom in a new neighborhood, or just looking for connection, we’ve got ideas to make introductions less weird and friendships easier to build—plus a connection challenge to help you take the first step.
QUOTES
“It’s gonna be weird. It’s gonna be awkward. And you just embrace the weird.” — Katelynn
“There’s not a single person yet that we’ve handed this bottle of wine to and they’ve been like, ‘Okay thanks, bye.’” — Annie
“Casserole by casserole. Text by text.” — Katelynn
“Everybody wants to help—you just have to say what you need.” — Annie
TAKEAWAYS
1️⃣ Build community creatively—wine tags, fruit snacks, or borrowing a measuring cup all work.
2️⃣ Awkwardness is normal. Friendship doesn’t have to be instant to be meaningful.
3️⃣ Keep a pre-written message in your Notes app for those emergency contact requests.
4️⃣ Use Facebook groups and neighborhood pages to find other moms or plan low-pressure mini-meetups.
5️⃣ Our Connection Challenge: Reach out to one new person and tell us how it goes (bonus points for creativity!).
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Plain Burlap Wine Bags with Tags
Cheers Burlap Wine Bags with Tags
New Housewarming Cards - Green
FEATURED CHAOS ANTHEM
[Secret Chaos Anthem—Go Find It!]
This week’s chaos anthem is part scavenger hunt, part inside joke. We’re keeping it under wraps—listen to the episode to find out why, and then go check out the playlist to uncover the track!
🎧 You can find it (and all our episode anthems) on The Chaos Commanders: Season One playlists available on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
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